Reasons for refusal largely centred around the lack of parking for those who would have lived in the apartments.

Overview plans for the refused Dukes Ride site

The application allowed for only 17 parking spaces on the site and so did not meet with Bracknell Forest Council's parking requirements of at least 30 spaces.

The committee was unable to be swayed by the argument that the people using the new development were likely to be in their 70s rather than 60s and so would be less likely to own a car and so fewer spaces would be needed.

A similar argument put forward by the applicant also suggested that the majority of the people likely to use these types of accommodation would be widowed women in their 80s which as a demographic tend to have fewer cars.

This was also dismissed by councillors partly due to the belief that people living in Dukes Ride, Crowthorne would need a car because of the 'patchy' bus routes through the area.

Members of the public present at the meeting included the owner of a house adjacent to the site and the applicant was unable to confirm how far away the proposed development would be from their land.

Staff from the applicant Renaissance Retirement Ltd said their measurement of 13.6m was 'broadly accurate'.

Another estimate put before the council said the development would be 3.75m from the property

Both of these estimates fall short of the required distance of 16.5m.

After debating the plans for around an hour, four members of the committee voted for the plans, but 10 decided to vote against them.